[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 15 - “BACK TO 2068”



Sougo’s optimism was always going to be his Achilles heel.

His entire goal – to be a Good Despot – is one that’s laughably disconnected from the grim history of mankind. Civilization was built by people, and people aren’t always great. Very few countries (if any) have flourished without regrettable-to-inhumane actions, and very few of those countries’ rulers are seen as beacons of morality. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, no matter the amount of caring friends you surround yourself with, or the good intentions you might have. (In fact, there’s another expression, about which path is paved with good intentions…)

It’s also a goal that relies on a willful dismissal of things like evidence and testimony. It’s Sougo hearing people say he’s done something, and countering them with a vow to not do it. He think he’s keeping himself honest by letting people tell him when he’s on the wrong path, but he also disregards their feedback with a smile. He’s not offering much in defense of his growing power and confidence.

Because he doesn’t see that he’s got a problem. Oma Zi-O’s a bad guy, and Sougo just won’t become a bad guy. Sougo believes he’ll find a way to gain all the power and abilities of Oma Zi-O, just as he’s destined to, but he just Won’t Be Evil Somehow. The end. What’s for breakfast?

The stakes of the series can’t ever increase until Sougo directly confronts the claims of the Time Orphans, so we are on a soul-crushing trip to the orange-tinged Misery Fields of 2068, where Sougo can scream at Oma Zi-O, and Oma Zi-O can humiliate Sougo.

As an episode, it’s solid enough. I liked the show setting the big Geiz/Zi-O/Decade/Kasshin fight in the same warehouse as the Build Hazard episodes. There’s a kind of emotional memory to that set, where it just feels like the show is getting bleaker and more serious. It’s a location that strips away the hopeful naivete of youth, and replaces it with terror and consequences.

Beyond that, though, it’s a little one-note? It’s Sougo just screaming No at things a lot, which is both the point of the episode (Sougo’s constant self-deception is making his worst future more likely), and kind of a drag. Sougo needs to hit rock-bottom, emotionally, but he’s starting so so high above that, which means it’s going to take a lot longer than we’d maybe like for him to be in a place to deal with his future.

The part of the episode I liked the best is the recurring entreaty – by friend and foe alike – for Sougo to stop Oma Zi-O once and for all by abandoning his Driver. Just, quit. Beyond being a nicely archetypal Can You Use An Evil Power To Do Good thematic note (real top-line Kamen Rider stuff), I like how obviously wrong it is. Sougo can’t avoid the future by refusing to go there; literally, in this episode. It’s no victory to lay down his sword. Time keeps moving onward, even into a future we don’t particularly look forward to. The solution can’t ever be to deny it exists, nor can it be to stay in the past.

This was a lot of set-up and backstory in the front of the episode (That dumb Time Nonsense dream of Sougo’s! Jesus! I need another Sakurai in my life like I need a hole in my head!), with a very engaging fight scene that took up the middle section, but I’m most interested in where Sougo goes after this. His dilemma is a universal one, even though it's being acted out by a fourth-dimensional warlord in the Misery Fields of the future: How do we grow as people, without becoming someone we despise?

Very interested in what his answer is.



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KAMEN RIDER ZI-O COMPLEMENTATION PROJECT EPISODE 15.5 - “BE FOREVER COMPLEMENTATION PROJECT (PART ONE)”

I would watch both of those proposed spin-offs, honestly. I know Geiz gets a movie after the show, and I’ve heard enough people on the Figuarts thread mention “Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi” to say that neither option presented here wouldn’t work. These are all fun actors, and I like all of their characters. You wanna hand the show over to Tsukuyomi or Geiz? Be my guest!

But that’s all just a prelude to the big Winter Movie that’s about to open in theaters! With a big SURPRISE! Just like the special surprise this thread will have to celebrate Heisei Generations Forever! You won’t want to miss it!*



*: I mean, you might want to miss it. I don’t know your life! But I think it could be fun for folks.